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How to....Articles on Arc4life.com How to Treat Tight and Stiff Muscles

This Arc4life How to article discusses one way to reduce the pain of tight muscles. Arc4life will show you how to use ice and BioFreeze to stop the pain of tight muscles and spasms.

BioFreeze is a pain relief topical pain relieving gel that you can apply to areas of muscle that are tight, hypertonic and painful. Biofreeze is similar to "icy hot" and "BenGay" products but it is superior because it does not have an odour once applied. Biofreeze can be applied to the neck, mid back, lower back or an extremity such as an arm or a leg. In this Arc4life How-to article we are going to discuss how to use BioFreeze specifically for neck pain using an ice pack.

What you will need:

BioFreeze

6 x 20 Ice Pack

1 light to medium thickness towel

1 non latex glove (optional)

Steps:

Grab your ice pack from the freezer. It is a good idea to have the ice pack in there for at least 4 hours to make sure it will effectively give you cold therapy.

Wrap your ice pack in the towel. The reason we wrap the ice pack is to reduce any chances of frost burn or ice burn.

Squeeze a small amount of biofreeze from the tube onto your finger.

Apply the biofreeze to your neck. Start with a gentle pressure from from the top of your neck in the back (just under your hairline in the back) and massage in small circular strokes. Do this first on the right side, then the left side. From top to the base of the neck. It is important to keep your head and neck in a neutral position.

After you have applied the biofreeze and completed the muscle work for about 1-1.5 minutes on each side, apply the ice pack to your neck area. Apply this ice pack right around your neck, allowing the ice pack to hang from your upper shoulders.

Rest for 5-15 minutes in a seated position (with a back rest) or lying down.

Things to Remember:

If someone can assist you in applying the Biofreeze, that is a great idea.

Biofreeze does not smell and it is not greasy. You want to wear a glove so that you don't have the sensation and temporary tingling on your fingers. Using a glove glove will save you the step of washing your hands after applying the biofreeze

It is always a good idea to have an ice pack in the freezer. Alternately you can also use a frozen bag of peas or potatoes! Keep your ice pack in a seperate plastic bag so that it does not pick up smells from the freezer. There are many different sizes of cold packs that you can purchase. For the neck and upper back, the 6x20 size works best. For the lower back a square ice pack works great at dimensions 10x13 because it covers a larger surface area.